The Wire Recap: Season 5, Episode 3, “Not for Attribution”

I don’t deny it: The Wire didn’t quite float my boat when I saw the first broadcast of the first episode in the Summer of 2002. Like many, I only became obsessed with the show on DVD, meaning I absorbed Seasons 1-4 by watching them in batches of two to five episodes. Because of my press ties, I received all of Season Four in advance in the summer of 2006, just as the Season Three DVDs became available; when I learned I was heading into the hospital and wouldn’t be able to watch TV for a while, I raced against time to watch the two seasons in just over a week. I offer these details to explain how my reaction to The Wire may differ from that of someone who watches the show week by week. If such a viewer finds an episode like last week’s “Unconfirmed Reports” uncommonly preachy, it’ll leave a bad taste for a full week. Viewed back-to-back, however, the preachiness seems a minor digression which fades into the background once the plot kicks back in. “Not For Attribution” is a serious plot episode, one that as such is likely to leave the “Unconfirmed Reports” naysayers pleased that the show is back on track. For folks in the press like myself, who received copies of the first seven episodes of the season from HBO, the soapbox moments felt like necessary context, at least when an episode like this week’s falls hard on the heels of the speechifying.

In my write-up of “More With Less”, I said I found the return of “McNutty” to be somewhat depressing after seeing Jimmy McNulty display some measure of personal growth over the course of seasons Three and Four. When first watching the episode, I thought perhaps David Simon was folding under pressure from fans who found a sober McNulty boring and wanted to see him in his out-of-control mode a few more times before the series packed it in. However, “Not For Attribution” and last week’s “Unconfirmed Reports” make it clear that “McNutty” is key to the story David Simon wants to tell—a sober McNulty would never come up with his crazy scheme to get his bosses to pay attention to the deaths of homeless men, and even if he did come up with the scheme, no way in hell would he be capable of acting on it without a healthy quantity of Jameson’s coursing through his veins.

“Not For Attribution”, then, basically picks up where “Reports” left off, with the inebriated McNulty forging evidence and Bunk Moreland being apoplectic with dismay. McNulty may be an alcoholic tail-chaser, but he’s by no means a dummy—doctoring old evidence to make it appear that the killer has been active for awhile is a very shrewd way to keep people from noticing how closely connected he is to the case, thereby solving the problem pointed out by Toadmonster in his comment on my write-up of last week’s episode: If every body McNulty catches is related to the bogus killer, wouldn’t people quickly grow suspicious? The way things stand now, it’s a little less likely to be the case.

In an inspired stroke, McNulty retroactively inserts the killer’s “trademark”—a red ribbon tied around a victim’s writst—into a report written by Ray Cole, the homicide detective who died between seasons two and three who was played by Robert F. Colesberry, one of the series’s executive producers, who died in early 2004. The photo of Cole that we saw at his wake has long been a staple of The Wire’s credits sequence, and invoking him now is both a nice way to salute Colesberry once more as the series enters its final stretch and a much more organic way of having McNulty pull off his scam than it would have been for him to doctor the case files of a dead or retired detective who had never been mentioned on the series.

McNulty’s big lie helps make “Not For Attribution” one of The Wire’s funniest episodes, and leaves little doubt that David Simon intends to beef up the series’s satirical side as it heads into the sunset. Comedy is generated by other sources too, such as Marlo Stansfield’s naivete (more about that shortly), but the bulk of the laughs come from Bunk’s exasperation with McNulty’s plan. The masterstroke moment, of course, comes when Bunk calls upon Lester Freamon to talk some sense into McNulty—a decision that at first seems as though it will pay off (“Shit like this actually goes through your fucking brain?!” Bunk asks incredulously), but which backfires when Freamon offers to help McNulty pull it off. With Freamon on his side, McNulty’s chances of success are now about a thousand times higher than before, and it’s a treat to catch a glimpse of a more playful Freamon channeling his frustration (and, of course, his formidable intellect) into the scheme.

The police and city hall plots connect with the activities at the Sun this week, early enough in the season to help forestall the “College Fiction Workshop 101” vibe that Virgil P complained about in his comment last week. Scott Templeton obviously has a major role to play in the future; given that, I was very happy to see Alma Gutierrez take on a more prominent role, as I really like her perspective as a newspaper newbie. As always, the episode title is relevant to the action in several different ways, though its primary importance is related to McNulty’s manipulation of Alma and Norman Wilson planting the story about Ervin Burrell being thrown under the bus by Carcetti. I could easily devote another thousand words to the Burrell/Rawls/Daniels/Carcetti/Green situation, which is totally in my wheelhouse. I’ve always been intrigued by office politics in the world of law enforcement; Daniels’ rise feels like something Simon has been planning for a long time, and I love it when a story that has been developed gradually over the course of several seasons suddenly clicks into place. Daniels’s now-ex-wife is a character I’ve always loved to hate on account of her iciness, and I loved the scene where she advises her former husband to forego promotion lest Burrell unleash the dirt we’ve long known he has on Daniels. Compared to the other major storylines, this one is still simmering on a low flame, but I can’t wait to see how it effects the other stories when it finally reaches a boil.

The scene at the Sun where Whiting tells the staff that the Sun is closing its Beijing, Moscow, Jerusalem, Johannesburg and London bureaus is striking in terms of its timing—while the real life paper’s London and Beijing bureaus closed in 2005, the actual Sun only shuttered its Moscow bureau on December 19, 2007. The scene was not without a certain personal resonance for me, as my uncle Oswald L. Johnston Jr., a longtime international correspondent (he spent most of his career at The Los Angeles Times and retired after taking a buyout in 1992) got his first break as an overseas reporter when he was hired as the Sun’s man in Rome in the mid-’60s. Ozzie wasn’t at the Sun for a particularly long spell before going to the LA Times, but it was sobering to hear his accounts of management behavior at Times Mirror (then-owner of the LAT and the Sun) at the time of his retirement, just as I was resolving to break into the field—and that was before the Internet began to threaten the newspaper business.

Indeed, Simon lets the Sun stuff get a little sentimental this week as a line is drawn between those who really live for journalism (the old timers, plus Alma Gutierrez) and those without a true passion for the business (Scott Templeton). Templeton’s sneering dismissal of Roger as “dead wood” showed that while he’s ingratiated himself with management, he’s fundamentally a stranger to the true culture of the paper, otherwise he’d know that Roger is the kind of guy who could tell you everything about Cedric Daniels except his shoe size. Roger and Gus’s accounts of what drew them to the business are certainly misty-eyed, but in an entirely believable way. Anyone who’s spent much time around reporters can tell you that while they’re generally stereotyped as a crusty, cynical bunch, newsmen (and -women) as a whole are a very romantic lot, for good reason: no one would work so hard for so many hours a week for so little pay if they didn’t truly believe they were part of an enterprise with the power to change the world for the better.

One final note on the Sun: I’d long assumed that when Wire characters referred to “the Sun papers”, the plural was a Baltimore quirk. Even though the term isn’t explained this week, a light bulb nonetheless went off over my head as I realized why Wire Baltimorons use the “s”: Until September 15, 1995, there was a separate evening edition, so the Sun was in fact two newspapers. More than a dozen years have passed since then, but the habit of thinking of the Sun as a two-paper institution apparently lives on.

The Wire’s street characters were busy as ever this week. Marlo contiunes to move forward with his scheme to replace Prop Joe as Baltimore’s biggest wholesaler, and although he has brains, balls and the town’s most coldhearted killers on his side, it’s increasingly apparent that his naivete could be his Achilles heel. “It ain’t easy civilizing this motherfucker,” Joe sighs after Marlo insists on visiting the offshore bank where he’s deposited his funds in the apparent belief that if he can’t see and hold his money, it doesn’t exist. Marlo’s jaunt to the islands follows another tremendously funny bit of business when he attempts to bribe Vondas into doing business with him rather than Joe. After Vondas rejects his cash because it’s literally dirty, Marlo, in an incredible display of chutzpah, goes to Joe to get a load of crisp replacement bills. Joe is obviously aware that Marlo is a potential threat, and in teaching the younger dealer the finer points of money laundering, he displays his familiarity with the time-honored “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” strategy. For all his insight into Marlo, Joe seems to underestimate just how eager Marlo is to extract bloody revenge on Omar. Cheese’s back-channel dealings with Marlo don’t bode well for Joe, may be too devoted to neutrality for his own good.

Marlo too, however, may be underestimating an enemy. He dispatches Chris and Snoop to kill Butchie in the hope of luring Omar back to Baltimore, but we all know that Omar is someone you really don’t want to piss off. After what happened in season three when Stringer Bell made an attempt on Omar’s life in violation of the Sunday truce, there’s no doubt that when Omar returns to Baltimore, he’s gonna come out swinging hard. Omar’s island hideout seems idyllic at first glance, but the sight of a busted toilet in the alleyway outside his house (as well as the state of his kitchen) makes it clear that he isn’t exactly living it up on the lam. Weather notwithstanding, going back to Baltimore could represent a step up in his surroundings.

There’s still a lot I haven’t gotten to, so in the interest of expediency I’m going to give the short shrift to Michael, Dukie and Clay Davis, whose scenes this week, fascinating though they may be, are more about laying groundwork for future developments than anything else. Michael was reticent in describing Chris and Snoop’s massacre at June Bug’s house to Dukie, though of course he wasn’t an actual eyewitness to the killings. Nonetheless, it was believable—and very affecting—for him to respond to the bloody murders by trying to be a normal kid for a day and going to Six Flags with Dukie. After their day at the amusement park, the stark contrast presented by Michael’s return to his corner hit me like a bucket of cold water. The biggest unanswered question about the season at this point is just what role Michael and Dukie will ultimately play, and right now your guess is as good as mine. As for Davis…jeez, I actually felt myself feeling kinda sorry for the poor guy, whose back is very much against the wall now (although the scene where Rhonda Pearlman grills his driver on the stand kept me from feeling too much sympathy). He’s smart enough, I dare say, that he’d only try and cut a deal with Carcetti if he was really desperate, as otherwise I expect he’d give Carcetti a little more credit for his intelligence. The bit where Carcetti shuts him down by saying that he’d already know about it if the ministers had a problem with Daniels was entertaining, but also somewhat sad given Davis’ utter helplessness.

Two final points: I’ve always loved ? and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears”, one of the great garage rock anthems, and I loved the scene where McNulty stumbles out of the bathroom as it blares on the jukebox and flirts with the blonde he’ll soon do from behind on the hood of his car. For all the wisecracks we’ve heard McNulty and others make about “the Western District way” over the years, few scenes have said as much about the debauched nature of Baltimore’s police culture as McNulty flashing his badge to the uniform cops who quickly drive off after catching him in flagrante. And although James Whiting broke out his “more with less” line once again this week, his belief in clean narratives above all wasn’t reiterated in the Sun scenes. Even so, it was evoked by the scene where Syndor is baby sitting the grand jurors and we hear the prosecutors talk about streamlining the account of Clay Davis’ misdeeds so that the jurors don’t get “lost in the details”. Journalism and the law, it’s obvious, are forces that Simon believes are intended to protect the people; the sight of their agents patronizing the folks they’re supposed to be defending (which is exactly what happens when facts arrive so packaged and predigested) is among the most stinging examples The Wire has offered of urban America’s slow-motion collapse.

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"Templeton's interview at the Washington Post was sharp. The stinker essentially being told to come back when he learns to write- priceless."

Did I miss this scene from ep. 53? Or is somebody with preview copies confusing us with scenes from upcoming episodes?Posted by ShoelesJoe on 2008-01-25 00:36:00

Nice catch, arthurbrown!Posted by Anonymous on 2008-01-24 22:00:00

Just caught up with this ep on TiVo - anyone else notice a brilliant little stroke where the Sun's weather report shows not Baltimore but Los Angeles? It's clearly visible on the back page when Alma and McNulty pick up copies looking for their story on the front page. I love this detail - it's Simon's way of subtly saying that the Sun is more affected by the situation in the LA Times/Tribune Co. boardroom than what's happening in Baltimore. Maybe you have to have lived in both towns to notice...Posted by arthurbrown on 2008-01-24 19:23:00

I thought this episode offered a brief payoff to longtime viewers with the apparent fall of Clay Davis. (I will not bet against Davis slipping the web though.) It was great to see the noose tighten and watch Davis scramble to cash in favors from people who have had just enough of his cons. The scene with Carcetti was knee slapping enjoyment for this fan. (Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!)Posted by A. McCann on 2008-01-23 15:56:00

I too enjoyed the bar scene where Haynes and the "soon to be bought out reporter" reflect upon their profession and how they got into it. It really mirrors the scene from S1 where McNulty and Freamon share a drink and retrace their steps to becoming good Po-lice.

Now it looks like that's not all they'll share. And speaking of the veteran reporter who was laid off. I couldn't help but think that was Simon writing himself into the script: accepting the buyout and then proclaiming that it was time to write the "next great American novel."

And I also wondered to myself if Simon was throwing a little jab at David Milch when Haynes told Templeton to get back to his "deadwood" shit - or something like that. (I know that he was throwing Templeton's words back at him, but Hayne's inflection made them sound like the one word name of the town and show Simon has already teased in the past.)

(MZS: Nice insight on Templeton and the rat from Charlotte's Web.)Posted by A. McCann on 2008-01-23 15:51:00

Interesting arguments on both sides of the Freamon/McNulty debate. Almost changed my mind. But in the end, if I can just barely rationalize McNulty's descent, I cannot go for Freamon's. I'm trying to go with the black comedy take, but that also is too much of a shift in tone for me. Hamsterdam was, objectively, as over-the-top as this. And, yet, somehow they pulled it off in a way that didn't leave me saying "no way."

But I don't know. After reading everyone's comments, I wonder if it's me. I didn't laugh once this episode. Bunk's reaction isn't funny to me; it's my reaction.

I do know one thing, though: Michael Kenneth Williams is one of the most riveting actors I've ever had the exquisite joy of watching. Those few seconds of his face at the very end were electric.Posted by Nomi Lubin on 2008-01-23 06:09:00

So, Lester's addicted to solving problems in the same way that Jimmy's addicted to his own enormous ego? I like that interpretation. There's a neat symmetry to it.

But Lester's solution to Jimmy's problem is highly illegal and at least a little bit unethical. I just think we should have seen this crazy, slippery side of Lester before, so it wouldn't seem so jarring now.Posted by Anonymous on 2008-01-22 20:47:00

RE: Slippery Slope

It was last week's second episode that technically introduced the slippery slope theme, with the addict (played by Richard Price's daughter) telling her slippery slope lesson.

Here's why I buy Lester warming to the idea: McNulty presents him with a fully-formed plan, which he's already enacted and completely gotten away with (the only problem is the lack of results). Lester is a natural teacher and idea man, so while he's astounded at how extreme McNulty's actions are, he also recognizes ways to improve the idea and execution, and achieve the desired results. Combine that with what people have noted about his experiences in the department, and Lester's viewing this as a very winnable challenge.Posted by On the Dole on 2008-01-22 18:45:00

I see your point and it's a good one, but Lester had never really displayed addictive behavior before. Jimmy has from the very beginning (as Landsman said, Jimmy's biggest addiction is to Jimmy himself). Lester is stubborn and a tad self-righteous, like Jimmy, but I don't recall ever seeing him going on any Jimmy-like binges or acting as if he were invincible. The change in Lester just seems too abrupt. Maybe the writers should have made Lester a little less perfect in previous seasons.Posted by Anonymous on 2008-01-22 05:44:00

That was a major theme established in the first episode, in the addiction meeting, when the female addict tells everyone to make a list of all the things you swear you will never do, then treat that as a list of all the things that you're going to do to serve your addiction.

Freamon and McNulty are exhibiting addict behavior. Analyzing what they do by traditional means, in terms of plausibility and consistency, is a dead end.Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2008-01-22 02:21:00

There's a difference between dedicating all your spare time to a voluntary stakeout and colluding in a crime while encouraging the insanity of a fellow policeman.

I'm not claiming them to be the same thing, but I do think the stakeout is crucial in that it shows Freamon going against the philosophy that he has made for himself, that one has to have a life outside of the job in order to be worth a damn. It shows that his desire to get Marlo has made Freamon willing to violate his personal code. Once you start violating your code, it becomes a slippery slope.Posted by Andrew on 2008-01-22 01:08:00

Well, I agree I was a bit shocked to see Lester turn so quickly to McNutty's crazy plan, but it made sense to me. Lester stuck to the rules, played the dutiful cop, and got screwed into a desk job for most of his career. He's played by the rules with the Special Investigation unit these past 4 seasons of the Wire only to see the system grind the wheels of justice so slowly they're showing rust.

In light of his history and the fact that Lester knows McNulty is probably right that this is the only way to convict Marlow, I can see him coming around. When McNulty and Freamon are calling Bunny Colvin looking for new jobs at the end of the season, don't be surprised. Hamsterdam revisited.Posted by Joel on 2008-01-22 01:04:00

That's a great bit of information, Joel--and I suspect you're right, that's the source of the character's name.Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2008-01-22 00:55:00

When I hear the name Scott Tempelton, I think of the introduction to Ivanhoe, where Walter Scott writes as "Laurence Templeton," who pleads with the reader for some license in combining verifiable historical fact with romanticized fiction. One name would have been a stretch, but the combination of first and last names for this character make the reference explicitly clear.Posted by Joel on 2008-01-22 00:32:00

"I thought they did a good job last week of foreshadowing Lester's eventual conversion when he went out on that voluntary stakeout."

There's a difference between dedicating all your spare time to a voluntary stakeout and colluding in a crime while encouraging the insanity of a fellow policeman. I agree with the other anonymous above: We needed more preparation for Lester's conversion. He should've started coming unglued a little earlier and a little more convincingly.

- a different anonPosted by Anonymous on 2008-01-21 22:58:00

I thought they did a good job last week of foreshadowing Lester's eventual conversion when he went out on that voluntary stakeout. This is the man who told Jimmy that, "The job will not save you." Yet there he was dedicating all his spare time in the pursuit of his obsession.Posted by Andrew on 2008-01-21 21:38:00

I agree, Matt, the conversion is well within the realm of possibility and I happily accept it. I guess it's just - it's more fun to get information about a character, and then for a plot point to come out of that.... than it is to get new information about a character *via* a major plot point. If that makes sense. It's not like we haven't been shown Freamon's mounting anger - it's just that I'm not sure we had reason to think he'd changed *so much* that he'd get on board with something so dangerously insane.-mPosted by Anonymous on 2008-01-21 21:25:00

Anon: I agree that Freamon had more of a centered moral code than McNulty, and was a renegade in a somewhat different way. But is it beyond the realm of possibility that after getting bled and screwed for much of his career, and having to improvise and hustle to get justice done, and edging up near or past retirement age, he might have a McNulty conversion and say, "Fuck this shit--let's give the system the bullshit story it wants and deserves, and get the cops some money in the process"?Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2008-01-21 20:45:00

Amazing reviews from Andrew and Matt - thanks so much for these. Unlike some, I have no problem accepting McNulty's slide off the rails - the introduction of the serial killer plot filled me with glee - one of those perfect plot developments - entirely unexpected, and, for me, entirely plausible. What I do have *some* problem with is Freamon's wholehearted acceptance of the plan. I'm with Bunk on that one - didn't seem a likely turn at all. It's true that we've been told from the first season that Freamon and McNulty have a lot in common - and they do - but Freamon's always been passionate in an entirely different way. After four seasons of watching him be a patient, methodical, paternal presence in the unit - it's hard for me to swallow his enthusiasm McNulty's *clearly insane* scheme.-mPosted by Anonymous on 2008-01-21 20:33:00

A highly entertaining episode, both extremely funny and exciting. Lester's conversion to the Church of McNutty doesn't surprise me since he is just as adept as Jimmy to "fuck himself" over a case. Also, Marlo proves himself to be a smart, capable dealer, but is ultimately too self-absorbed, too ambitious, to realize that he's better off with Omar out of Baltimore. In some ways, Marlo is starting to resemble Daniel Plainview in his methods. I hope he doesn't drink Prop Joe's milkshake.Posted by aml on 2008-01-21 19:41:00

Templeton's interview at the Washington Post was sharp. The stinker essentially being told to come back when he learns to write- priceless. Also, the two bar scenes, one with Haynes and Twigg, the other with Haynes and Wilson, both terrific. It's these quiet moments, wherein people simply talk yet convey much more than is written, that I most enjoy and why I love this show.Posted by Jim on 2008-01-21 18:33:00

Thanks to Matt and/or Keith for fixing my Coles/Green mistakes, and of course thanks to Andrew for pointing them out. The former cock-up was the result of me mis-hearing McNulty (he said "Coles's'" a lot when talking about the case) and not having seen any S1-2 episodes for way too long, while the latter error crept in because while I was in the middle of writing the recap, I got an email saying that a grad school classmate named Norman Green had just added be as a friend on Facebook, so his moniker was at the front of my mind.Posted by Andrew Johnston on 2008-01-21 15:02:00

Ryland, I agree, funniest ever. This was really black comedy of the highest caliber. I laughed very hard throughout, yet always knew how tough & bitter the truths underlying the humor really were.

Matt, I was right with you on most of your comments, until you compared the show to Wag the Dog. I agree with the idea behind that movie, which you quite rightly cite as a "merciless portrait of a society that prefers the simple lies of fiction to the messiness of reality." But I'd argue that the smug, lazy execution (starting with Mamet's screenplay) succumbs to "the simple lies of fiction" all too readily. Mamet's comedies, from Wag the Dog to State and Main, are positively dripping with contempt for the Average Joe (and even moreso the Average Jane) Mamet imagines he looks down on from his ivory tower. (Sorry if this comes across as a nasty rant, but I really loathe Wag the Dog, and think you do a great disservice to The Wire's extraordinary humanity and compassion by comparing the two.)Posted by On the Dole on 2008-01-21 07:55:00

Watching a beach-attired Marlo engage in the bank conversation with confused looks and antsy movements sent goose pimples throughout my body. I'd say it trumps S4's Ruth's Chris scene in terms of sheer awkwardness, but God help me I couldn't help smirking through the entire scene.

Simon's been nothing but effusive when referring to The Wire as Greek tragedy, and the closing bit with Omar filled me with sadness - forces beyond his control are pulling him back to his birthplace despite his sincere attempt to want out (re: D'Angelo, Bodie). Recalling Omar's lament to Bunk late S4 that Baltimore's all he knows makes it that much more melancholy. The guy made a tremendous effort to put it all behind him in the first place but he can't seem to shake the city's chokehold on his life. This last scene as well as Marlo's trip to the island reveal how restraining the world of Baltimore really is on all lives, small-time hoppers to kingpins alike. If you don't find that lamentable I think Chris has for you a job application.

re ryan: It appears the whole season is headed that direction.Posted by Simon Hsu on 2008-01-21 07:39:00

I was a bit concerned about the plausibility of McNulty's serial killer plan at first, but Episode 53 sold me on it. It's clear nobody--the ME's, Landsmann, or anyone else--gives a rip, particularly when the victims are homeless people. McNulty trying to will his bored colleague into being good po-lice was classic.

The newsroom story is growing on me too, mainly thanks to Clark Johnson, who's anchoring the new environment to our usual Wire-world nicely.

While I'm killing time (NYC's On Demand is being coy about Ep.54 at the moment)...did y'all know (undecided voters take note!) that The Wire is apparently Barack Obama's favorite show? (As for the Wire Rorschach test, his favorite character is--sorry, Carcetti--Omar. Hmmm. I would've pegged him as a Bubbles, Bunk, or Bunny man.)Posted by KcM on 2008-01-21 07:06:00

I'm loving this show. I am aware that some viewers have problems with the plausibility/necessity of McNulty's gambit, and with the show's "preachiness," two complaints that are intertwined in this subplot. But the show has always had a bit of a position paper aspect, never more so than in Season Three, which featured a similarly implausible, arguably ridiculous provocation in Bunny Colvin's bid to create a drug-free zone to prove his "brown paper bag" theory and expose the futility of the war on drugs as practiced in America. McNulty's invention of a serial killer is in that same spirit, only pushed toward black comedy, which is very much the dominant tone in this fifth and final season.

The first three episodes of the final season were filled with the sly reactive jokes and gallows wit characteristic of "The Wire" throughout its run. But I'm struck, and impressed, by how unabashedly the show is embracing its potential for comedy. It's out-and-out funny this year--the comedy of futility, reminiscent of Robert Altman's original movie version of "M*A*S*H" and Joseph Wambaugh's brilliant cop fiction and nonfiction (now strangely forgotten when great crime writers are discussed, or so it seems to this reader). It's been said that you can't really appreciate Kafka until you start reading the work as comedy rather than tragedy; I thought of that while watching this installment, which is Kafkaesque in the sense that so many of the characters, indeed all of the characters, are victims of a societal machine/maze/contraption in which the self-interested survivors establish themselves as permanent cogs and everyone else gets fed through the gears and turned into hamburger.

The newsroom story, the city hall story and the cop story are beautifully connected--not crudely paralleled in the manner dismissed here as "College Fiction 101," but fused together and tethered to reality, to the truth of life on earth, not just in America but everywhere, throughout history. If you could go back in time and give subtitled VHS copies of any season of "The Wire" to a citizen of the Soviet Union circa 1978, he'd laugh in recognition, even though supposedly their way of life was so very very different from our experiences here in an allegedly classless, capitalist democracy. What we're seeing in all three stories is the reconfiguration of the social gears to serve the short-term desires of careerist cogs within the machine. McNulty keeps trying to game the system for the greater good of the police department (and society as a whole) but he lacks the instinct for self-preservation and the knowledge that a a selfless hustler is a walking oxymoron who is doomed to fail. McNulty is, deep down, too decent a human being to really understand what sells. Alma doesn't know either, mainly because she's young and earnest. Her hard work putting together the story about the bogus serial killer of homeless men (which, not knowing it's made up, she believes is a major scoop) is promised Page One treatment, but ends up buried deep inside the next day's paper. McNulty's look of disgust (but not surprise) when he opens the paper and sees what became of Alma's story connects the characters in frustration, and also provides "The Wire" with one more anxious belly-laugh in a season filled with them.

McNulty in his anti-wisdom did everything right, but his machinations rested on a faulty assumption: that anyone anywhere in any social strata gave a shit about homeless people. (In these first three episodes, McNulty has been like a cartoon character in a short whose repeated punchline finds him falling off the same cliff no matter what he does.)

"More with Less," as the show rather too insistently reminds us, is the mantra here. The problem is, you can't actually do more with less. You can only recontextualize "less" so that it gives the fleeting appearance of "more." The Sun nickel and dimes beat reporters and buries their gruntwork, connected-to-daily-reality journalism on the back pages while management encourages their hustling "star" reporter to strive after "impact" stories that they consider worthy of big play--circulation-driving features with contrived narratives, obvious good guys and bad guys and cliched characters who don't really exist in life (like that invented little boy in the wheelchair at the ballpark, the kind of character who used to show up in pieces by "Life in the Big Tough City" columnists in New York, people like Jimmy Breslin, Mike McAlary, and Pete and Denis Hamill); a college writing workshop gloss on Damon Runyon caricature; the sort of stuff that wins prizes. The police department similarly relegates investigations of people who "don't matter" (poor blacks, the homeless) to the margins while looking for "impact" stories (dead coeds, for instance) that can rouse the emotions of the public, and thus of politicians, and shake loose more money. On a macro level, the fabrications of McNulty are intended to expose the lie of equal protection under the law, and the lie of America as classless society, the lie of "more with less"; on a micro level, they're meant to jolt loose more money for the department generally; the fabrications of Templeton (the name of the rat in "Charlotte's Web," by the way), in contrast, are intended solely for personal gain, but they align with the agenda of his bosses, who want to maximize impact and boost circulation with sentimental bullshit and prize-baiting one-off series. But Templeton and McNulty are soul brothers in their realization of how cynical their respective systems are, and what needs to be done to rouse the powers that be from complacency and get their attention. The major difference between them is that Templeton, young as he is, apparently has no soul left to lose, while McNulty is slowly but surely getting there (then again, maybe he'll be made into a sort of nihilistic folk hero--I wouldn't know because I'm watching the show in real time).

McNulty strikes me as a guy who has hit bottom in his personal life, but who professionally has not quit sunk as low as he can go. Templeton is giving the public what it wants (that invented juicy quote in the story about Daniels was a great touch--the only way this wet-behind-the-ears wunderkind can one-up a veteran beat reporter is to make shit up). McNulty is giving the public what he thinks it wants, and he's about to figure how to give the public what it wants; all his machinations are in service of giving the public what it needs, but knowing "The Wire," he'll probably end up falling off the same cliff yet again, and this time the fall will kill him.

It sure is fun to watch him work, though. The character is hilarious and West plays him with just the right deadpan bravado--the spark of a kid who's bought into his own absurd fantasy and doesn't even realize it. The closeup of him earnestly telling Freamon, "We're gonna have to kill again!" was a line worthy of David Mamet's "Wag the Dog"--a movie that this season of "The Wire," in its merciless portrait of a society that prefers the simple lies of fiction to the messiness of reality, increasingly resembles.Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2008-01-21 05:54:00

I hate to be anal retentive like this, but I must. The dead detective is named Cole, not Coles, and Norman's last name is Wilson, not Green. Carry on.

I liked the closeup of Templeton as he's making up the quote. Rather than have a cocky smile on his face, he had an expression of pure self-loathing. It's a nice nonverbal touch that adds a tad bit of dimension to the character.Posted by Andrew on 2008-01-21 05:06:00

Great review... I am planning to stay up to watch the 4th ep because it usually gets on my OnDemand by midnight!

Michael Lee is my favorite and I hope he survives... I'm scared for Duquan and Bug if something were to happen to him. Time will tell as this plot unfolds...

I watched seasons 1-4 on OnDemand and I totally agree with you. Watching them back to back like that didn't seem preachy to me at all. Truth is, this season has been just fine for me.

I'm kind of glad that I have been a latecomer to the party because I love the Wire and am glad that HBO allowed us newbies to catch up in time for the final season.--cgPosted by Christy08 on 2008-01-21 03:58:00